Terror reigns in holy city of Najaf

Armed radical groups have surrounded the house of Iraq's top Shiite Muslim cleric in the central city of Najaf, giving him 48 hours to leave the country, a top aide to the cleric said yesterday.

"Armed thugs and hooligans have had the house of [Grand] Ayatollah [Ali] Sistani under siege since yesterday. They have told him to either leave Iraq in 48 hours or they would attack," Kuwait-based Ayatollah Abulqasim Dibaji said.

"Total terror reigns in Najaf. They have told other ayatollahs to leave too," Ayatollah Dibaji said.

Najaf is a holy Shiite city where Grand Ayatollah Sistani and many other spiritual leaders live.

Ayatollah Dibaji said the house was surrounded by members of Jimaat-e-Sadr-Thani, a group led by Moqtada Sadr, the son of a late spiritual leader in Iraq.");document.write("

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"Moqtada wants to take total control of the holy sites in Iraq," Ayatollah Dibaji said.

Sheik Khoei was hacked to death by a mob at the gold-domed Imam Ali Shrine just days after returning from exile in London. Another cleric was also killed in that attack.

Friends and relatives say Sheik Khoei was the victim of a power struggle among Shiite groups for control of Najaf.

Last Wednesday, Sheik Khoei and 24 other Iraqi Shiite leaders met at the Imam Ali Mosque to discuss the future of their country and to address a crowd of Iraqis.

They had been handing out money to help win support.

US Army intelligence officers had given each of the 25 leaders Thuraya satellite phones and assured them that if there was trouble, simply turning them on would tell soldiers where they were and pushing a button would alert them to come to their rescue.

Trouble started when someone in the crowd yelled that one of the 25 was a supporter of Saddam Hussein.

Suddenly there were explosions and guns were turned on the clerics.

"We had our Thuraya phones and were frantically pushing the buttons for more than an hour, but no one came to help us," said a tribal leader.